New Owner of the Woodland Pulp Mill Meets with the Governor in Baileyville

There’s a new set of eyes overlooking production at the Woodland Pulp Mill’s headquarters in Baileyville and his name is Bert Martin.On Tuesday, Governor Baldacci met with Martin to discuss the future of the mill.As Diana Bosch found out, plans could include more jobs for the Baileyville community.”We want to operate the mill to its capacity,” Martin told us.Currently, the mill produces twelve hundred metric tons per day.Martin and his company, International Grand Investment Corporation, bought the mill from the Domtar Corporation in October for 64 million dollars.Governor Baldacci visited the facility which shut down in 2007, leaving 150 people out of work. Domtar reopened it last year.”They did make money while they did reopen it but they did make it clear that it was not in their long term plans cause it wasn’t part of their core mission of companies,” Governor Baldacci said.The mill now employs 300 people and the governor says these are some of the highest paying jobs in the state.The governor says the mill also creates a ripple effect, adding jobs in other industries such as trucking and forestry.”The ripple impact from these jobs is huge so this is really a lifeblood to Washington County, this mill,” he said.According to Martin 35 to 40 percent of the mill’s supply comes from New Brunswick, he also added the balance comes from this county and Northern Maine, even saying the mill employs people as far North as Fort Kent and Ashland.In addition to keeping people on the job, Martin says he has plans to export products to China. IGIC is owned by a chinese company.But the plans don’t stop there. Martin says the state can expect more from Woodland Pulp.”We look all the time, at the end of the day my role is to improve it and solidify it and sky’s the limit.”